


the desert dreams of a river

by nex_et_nox



Series: desert adoption au [2]
Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Divergence - Episode: s01e18 Juno Steel and the Final Resting Place, Other, buddy knows A Lot because it's no fun simply being a bar owner, nureyev this is why you don't blindly make deals with strangers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:28:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27135937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nex_et_nox/pseuds/nex_et_nox
Summary: "What was the deal?" Buddy asks Jet."Assistance," Jet says. "And a safe place to rest.""You could have at least called ahead to let me know," Buddy says. "I would have made up the spare room."[Jet returns to Buddy's lighthouse -- with company.]
Relationships: Buddy Aurinko & Jet Sikuliaq, Peter Nureyev & Jet Sikuliaq, Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel
Series: desert adoption au [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1810927
Comments: 26
Kudos: 185





	the desert dreams of a river

**Author's Note:**

> I had to restart this bastard of a fic three different times before it would let me write it but here we are!
> 
> title from "From This Valley" by The Civil Wars

"We are back," Jet says as he walks into the lighthouse, threading through the deserted bar front of it until he reaches the residential interior. Buddy is seated at the kitchen table, an empty glass of whiskey before her. 

"You were gone longer than I expected," she says. She looks over his shoulder. "I see you brought company." Her good eye narrows thoughtfully as she looks over the two thieves who have stopped at the kitchen's entryway. 

Both Rose and Juno were fixed up by the medic Jet brought them to, but medical attention doesn't detract from the exhaustion and wariness pulling them down. Juno has fresh bandages wrapped over and around his eye socket; as when Jet first met them, he is leaning his weight into Rose, though this time it's more leftover anesthesia than blood loss. 

Rose was a singularly unhelpful patient. He had refused to leave Juno, so the medic had been forced to look him over in the hallway outside the tiny operating room the clinic boasted. Rose received salve for the bruises around his throat and had his ribs wrapped — apparently he'd managed to crack several of them during his and Juno’s desert misadventures. The medic had announced Rose's treatment of the electrical burns warping his skin sufficient and hadn't touched them. Not after the way Rose had gone rigid when the medic reached out to examine them.

"Engstrom's thieves," Jet says to Buddy in explanation.

Buddy's expression sharpens even further in interest. "My goodness," she says. Long familiarity with her means that Jet is aware of at least some of the calculations that must be going through her mind: all the details that Jet has dropped about his tracking of the Ruby 7, how long Jet has been gone, the rumors flying around about Engstrom and the Utgard Express —

A laser scalpel drops down into Rose's palm from where he'd been hiding it up his sleeve. The blade hums threateningly. Rose's face matches that threat. 

"You're not touching him," he says. "That wasn't the deal."

"What _deal_?" Juno hisses from beside him. He lets go of Rose, wavering on his own two feet. “Rose, what did you _do_?"

"What I had to," Rose says. 

"What was the deal?" Buddy asks Jet. 

"Assistance," Jet says. "And a safe place to rest." 

"You could have at least called ahead to let me know," Buddy says. "I would have made up the spare room." 

"My apologies, Buddy." 

Rose's eyes widen fractionally. The hand holding the laser scalpel wavers. "You're Buddy Aurinko," he says. 

"Who?" Juno asks. Jet's eyebrows raise. 

"She's _Buddy Aurinko_ ," Rose repeats. He must catch Juno's nonplussed expression out of the corner of his eye or feels the displacement of the air as Juno shrugs, because he says, "Oh, honestly, Juno, do you really not—”

"I don't know every thief out there!" Juno protests. "My focus is Hyperion, and in case you haven't noticed, we're in the _Cerberus Province_ , so—”

“—can’t believe this, you haven’t even heard _rumors—_?”

"Juno?" Buddy interrupts them. "Surely not Juno Steel?"

A pause. Rose shifts to cover Juno and raises his laser scalpel again, argument forgotten.

"How," Juno says. " _How_ does everyone know who I am? Is — did I do something? Is there a warrant out for me?"

"Nothing so pedestrian," Buddy says lazily. "Not to worry. We have a mutual friend."

Juno frowns. Rose looks between the two of them. 

"Valles Vicky and I used to run in similar circles," Buddy clarifies. "She retired — mostly — and took up with her wife. She sends me pictures of her little boy sometimes." She smirks as she looks at Juno. "She's told me plenty of stories about you."

Juno groans. He seems to have lost much of his undercurrent of fear, landing solidly in exasperation. "Oh, god," he says. "I'm almost afraid to ask."

Buddy laughs. "Did you really punch the president of Venus?"

Juno groans again, louder. 

"Why, Juno," Rose says, grin reappearing. He doesn't quite drop the scalpel, however. 

"Don't," Juno says. “I’m sure she told you all about that while you were working with her, _Theseus Song_.” 

“Touché,” Rose says. 

Buddy's eyebrows raise. Jet does not recognize the name, but it apparently means something to her. 

"Juno Steel and Theseus Song,” Buddy muses. "An interesting combination. If I remember correctly, Mr. Song is an expert in Martian artifacts. What were you after on the Utgard Express, I wonder?”

Rose and Juno trade glances.

"Something personal," Juno says loudly, right as Rose says, "A commissioned item."

"A commissioned item that I, uh, took personally," Juno amends. 

Rose sighs.

"I would take a planet-killer rather personally, too," Buddy says. "Especially if it was on the planet where I was currently living. I suppose you couldn't simply leave it there once the defenses surrounding it proved themselves so terribly weak. I do hope the Egg of Purus has been destroyed."

Jet is surprised. He'd been aware Buddy was digging into what, exactly, had been stolen, but he wasn't aware she had found it. 

The Egg of Purus — if he heard it mentioned devoid of context, he likely would not have recognized the name. Combined with "Martian artifact" and "planet-killer," however, there is only one possibility. 

The weapon that killed the Ancient Martians. 

An emotion flickers across Juno's face too quickly for Jet to parse, and he says, "It's taken care of."

Rose winces slightly. Says, in an undertone, "We should have—”

"No one else is going to be able to get that thing to work, and even if they do, they won't be able to accomplish much with it," Juno says over him. His eye is locked onto Buddy. "And now no one knows where it is. I say let it stay there."

"You know where it is. _We_ know where it is," Buddy says neutrally, indicating herself and Jet. 

"And you won't be able to use it," Juno shoots back.

"Are you sure? There are a great many dedicated weapons engineers who might be able to recreate the Egg with enough work—i”

This is true. Jet thinks of M’Tendere. They are the kind of engineer Buddy speaks of, and Jet has no doubt that if M’Tendere put their mind to it, they would be able to crack the Egg, or at the very least devise a weapon similar in devastation. 

They have done so before. 

"If they replicate it exactly, it won't do them any good," Juno says. 

"But if they copy the _principles_ of it..." Rose says. "Juno..."

"They won't be able to _activate it_ , Rose!" Juno says. "Miasma collected every single bit of Martian tech she could get you to steal, and then she used that to engineer herself into that abomination. Whatever was left, she had with her in the airlock when—” He shakes his head. "No one will be able to activate it. Especially so long as _no one finds it._ "

There is something neither Juno nor Rose are saying. Given they are discussing a weapon capable of destroying planets, Jet finds that he cannot blame them. There is some secret to the activation and use of the weapon that only Juno and Rose know, something to do with other Martian artifacts, and Jet is content leaving that secret with them. The further such a secret secret spreads, the further potential for harm. Neither he nor Buddy need to know, nor want to know, that secret.

(Jet ignores the uncomfortable part of him that will always be the Unnatural Disaster that whispers no, he truly _does_ wish to know. It is his darkest impulses, the remains of a man who would unthinkingly drop M’Tendere's weapons on innocents and drive away laughing.

A man he is no longer. A man he wishes could be forever banished, but whom haunts him still.)

Buddy shrugs, as if the whole matter is of little importance to her. An act, one that Juno and Rose likely see through, even as Buddy says, "Very well. I don't know where this location is. We can simply let the weapon moulder away in its tomb."

Juno and Rose twitch as Buddy strikes the nail exactly on the head. 

"I'm sure you must be tired," Buddy says. She did not miss those twin flinches, but she moves the conversation away from the dangerous field they have landed themselves in. "There must be food somewhere in these cupboards. I'll see about finding some spare blankets. Feel free to eat whatever you find." Buddy stands and sweeps out of the room. 

Rose watches her the whole way. He still holds the laser scalpel with the ease of a knife user, ready in his hand, but traces of that awe in his eyes that appeared when he first heard Buddy's name remain, and a certain wistfulness shades his face. 

"Rose," Juno says. "You hungry?" 

"I could eat," Rose says, focusing back on his companion. "You likely need to do so more than I, detective."

"It's whatever," Juno says. Juno skirts around Jet as he makes his way to the kitchen and starts poking through the cupboards. Rose guards his back. 

Jet inclines his head to them, grabs the remains of a noodle dish from the fridge, and leaves them to their own meal. 

* * *

"Quite interesting friends you've brought with you, Jet," Buddy says later, once they're alone. She sits across from him. Juno and Rose have disappeared from the bottom floor, staying in the room halfway up the lighthouse that Buddy showed to them. "Why did you bring them here? And don't repeat that safe haven promise. You could have brought them _anywhere_. You could have dropped them back where they belong. Why here?"

She is not angry with him. Jet has experience with Buddy's anger, and this is not that. She wants to know. 

Jet considers his answer carefully. She is not angry with him, but he has not considered all of the factors himself, and he is not entirely sure why he chose to bring these strangers into Buddy's home. Into her own safe haven. 

"I wanted to know," Jet says eventually, "what kind of person has the Ruby 7 in his keeping now. What he is doing with it. What he _will_ do with it."

Is Rose going to be another Jet? 

Jet doubts it. Duke Rose, Theseus Song, whoever he may be, has too much heart in him. He has too much to hold onto in the form of Juno Steel. He does not seem so casually cruel as Jet was as a young man. 

This impression is only built on a few hours of knowing Rose, though. Jet may be mistaken. 

He finds he does not want to be. 

Buddy hums thoughtfully. "What did he promise you?" she asks. 

"Anything," Jet says. 

" _Anything_?" Buddy repeats. 

"Yes," Jet says. "He felt he had no other options."

"Even still, he should have bartered—”

"He felt he had no other options to keep Juno Steel safe," Jet interrupts her. 

That stops Buddy. He knew it would. It might have stopped him, too, had she wielded such an argument against him. 

Jet is in no way attracted to Buddy either romantically or sexually, but he loves her deeply. When you love a person like that…Some people, you must do whatever you have to in order to protect them. Jet sold the Ruby 7 for Buddy. Buddy stood on the top of a lighthouse in the irradiated desert for two years in the hopes that she could see the woman she loved again.

When you love a person, sometimes there are no other choices. 

"What are you going set as your price?” she asks, switching tracks. 

"I do not know," Jet says. He has not had much time to think on it. 

"I suppose that's the first order of business, then," Buddy says. "Who is Theseus Song? Figure that out and go from there."

It is a good question. Who is Theseus Song? Duke Rose? 

Jet will find out. 

* * *

Theseus Song does not exist. Neither does Duke Rose. 

Oh, the records are good. At a passing glance, they seem fine. If you dig deeper, however, they fall apart quickly, nothing but mirrors and illusions in place of any substance. 

Jet is beginning to have a suspicion of exactly who their guest is. It is difficult for a thief to establish a name for themselves. A thief has to be very good indeed in order to do so, and Rose _is_ a good thief. He is experienced. Too experienced for Jet to not have heard of him. Yet the thief in Buddy's spare room does not seem to have a name. Not one that Jet can find. 

There is only one thief that he is good enough to be. One thief who is infamous for that sheer _lack_ of name. 

Fascinating. 

* * *

("Nureyev," Juno whispers into Nureyev's shoulder once they are alone. They are curled together on the bed. It has been too long since they have had a chance to lay on something soft rather than the stone of the tomb, and they are relishing this chance. "What did you promise him?"

"Nothing I can't live without," Nureyev says. He hopes it isn't a lie. 

Juno doesn't like that answer. He doesn't like that Nureyev is avoiding giving him an actual answer, choosing instead to dance around it. 

"Tell me you didn’t—”

"Detective," Nureyev says. "Juno. I have nearly lost you too many times. I chose to make a deal, and I will honor it. Please respect that." 

Juno does, barely, but does so in a terribly petulant way: he rolls over so that his back is to Nureyev, a visible signal of how annoyed by this he is. 

Despite that, he does not lose contact with Nureyev. He still keeps his body pressed up against Nureyev's. 

Nureyev supposes he is not the only one who needs reminders tonight that they are both here. That they have made it out, and that they are alive.

Nureyev recalls with too easy clarity how lax Juno was during the car ride to the Cerberus Province. Their mysterious friend had driven the Ruby 7; Nureyev sat in the back with Juno, cradling his head in his lap and wiping carefully at the blood caked across his face with the water and bandages Ruby had provided. 

Juno had been so _still_. Only the steady pulse Nureyev kept careful track of convinced him that Juno was truly alive. 

Nureyev's anxiety during the ride was not helped along by the fact that their friend kept an eye on Nureyev during the trip. It was only logical, of course, because Nureyev was an unknown in a good position to attempt to attack him if he had wanted. 

In truth, Nureyev had considered the idea briefly before discarding it. It was too risky.

And he had given his word. 

So Nureyev had suffered those glances, suffered having to trust an unknown man, suffered having his fate thrust in a new direction when he had been so looking forward to being finally free from Miasma—

Suffered the near heart attack when Ruby shrilled for the driver's attention in the same moment that Juno stirred, inhaled, and whispered, "Nureyev?" 

"I'm here, Juno," Nureyev had said. His reflection in the rearview mirror had gone pale, and he watched the driver note that pallor when he looked in that selfsame mirror a few seconds later. 

Nureyev could only hope that Ruby had sufficiently distracted the man so that he hadn't heard. If he had—

_If he did, I will deal with it,_ Nureyev tells himself in the present. Yet the mere thought of it sends a shiver down his spine. The idea that anyone — other than Juno — might know his real name is terrifying. 

Nureyev agreed to pay any price for Juno's safety. He is scared that Ruby’s intervention was for nothing.

He is scared he knows what the price may be.

_File it away._

For now, there is nothing he can do about it. There is no use turning the idea over and over in his mind, examining all the horrid potential outcomes that may arise from this. No use considering how much the Brahman government would pay for that information, if someone wanted to sell it to them. No use thinking about what that government would do to him—

Nureyev forcefully wrenches his mind away from that train of thought. He wraps one arm around Juno, positions himself so they are curled together. It is the same way they spent nights in the tomb, trying to converse warmth and pull comfort from each other. 

_File it away. Just file it away. Concentrate on the here and now._

_File it away._

_Just like Mag taught you._

Nureyev allows himself to fall asleep. He does not have peaceful dreams.)

* * *

Juno is the first one downstairs in the morning. Jet has prepared himself a bracing cup of tea for the morning. Juno eyes him warily, but he doesn't avoid him like he had last night. 

"What was Rose's price?" he demands, stomping right up to where Jet is seated. 

Jet takes a sip from his mug. "Did he not tell you?" 

"You think I would be asking you if he did?" Juno shoots back. 

Jet thinks there is a reason Rose did not tell Juno what the price for their safety was. Nevertheless, he tells Juno, "It was a price to be determined."

Juno's hands clench into fists. "Dammit, Rose. _Dammit._ " He lets out a heavy breath. He looks as though he wants to say something, but before he can, Rose comes down the stairs. There is a tension in the thief's shoulders before he spots Juno and lets himself relax. 

"Juno," Rose says, relieved. "I woke up and you were gone."

"Sorry, Rose," Juno says. “Didn't mean to worry you." He doesn't look away from Jet while he buries his frustration and obvious, seething desire to continue this conversation with Jet. Jet has no doubt Juno wants to argue debts, but he does not want to do so in front of Rose. 

Rose nods to Jet. "Good morning," he says. 

"Likewise," Jet says. 

Juno stomps past Jet toward the kitchen. Rose gives a fond little smile and follows him. 

The day passes slowly. Juno and Rose eat breakfast and lunch, but in between they retreat back to their room. Jet has no doubt that they are taking what rest they can; they were both quite injured, after all. Jet was right about his assessment Rose's injuries when they first met — not even the bruise balm can disguise or fully mitigate the way the strangulation marks are a vivid ring of dark colors around his throat. 

Juno and Rose also are likely planning their way out of the Cerberus Province. Jet wonders if Juno has brought up Rose's debt in those calculations, and he wonders what, exactly, the detective is planning to do about it. Jet has no doubts that he has some kind of plan, whether or not Rose is aware of it. 

Jet is busy himself. He is compiling more information about the Nameless Thief, trying to match it to Rose. Buddy helps him, once he shares his suspicions. She likes to keep watch for the up and comers, the movers and shakers. Buddy is a big believer in cooperative crime work, and it is always important to her for her to be aware of allies — and enemies. 

"My, my," Buddy says, looking over the lists they've compiled. One for the thefts they are certain belong to the man who is not Duke Rose, the next for ones that are possible but not definite, and the last about which they are completely unsure. "He _has_ been busy. I'm almost tempted to put together a crew simply to work with him. I think it would be...interesting."

There is a pattern that emerges as they go through the Nameless Thief's files. 

"Pro bono and con bono," Buddy muses. "He does something good, followed by a lot of bad, and then back again." Her fingers tap on the table. "He can't seem to decide which way to land." 

That is dangerous. If Rose ever decides to go fully “con bono,” as Buddy puts it, then Jet is not sure that there would be anything stopping him from becoming another Unnatural Disaster. Yet — had he not so recently had the thought that Rose's heart is tied to Juno's? Does that not lend weight to Jet's consideration of him, or to Buddy's? 

Jet has decided what he wants from the thief. 

Buddy sits beside him when Rose and Juno come back down for dinner, a blaster within easy reach at her side. Juno immediately goes on alert when he sees them sitting there. Rose looks tired and trapped. It is an ill look on him. His gaze flicks to the detritus of their search, and he loses what little color he has, yet strangely, he straightens his stance, smoothes his expression. He hides everything he is. 

"Might I assume it is time to discuss prices?" Rose asks lightly. The levity does not reach his eyes. 

"It is only one thing," Jet says. He gestures to the information they have found. "You are the Nameless Thief, are you not?"

"Yes," Rose says. 

"Does the Nameless Thief _have_ a name?"

"Yes," Rose says again. He swallows. 

The final question. "What would that name be?"

"No," Juno says. "No, that — no deal."

"Juno," Rose says. 

"Rose, you are _not_ giving them your name," Juno says, rounding on him. 

"I made a deal," Rose says. “I thought this might be the price.”

“No. No, we'll figure something else out, or I'll pay some of that debt, or — dammit, Rose! My life isn't _worth that_!" Juno protests. 

"I'm afraid we'll have to disagree on that, my dear detective,“ Rose says. He cradles Juno's cheek with one hand and looks directly into the detective's remaining eye when he says, "My name is Peter Nureyev." 

**Author's Note:**

> >:)
> 
> about Theseus Song: so far as I'm aware we never got a canonical name for Nureyev's Valles Vicky alias, so I made one up. Why does Juno know it? Well, they were trapped together in a tomb for two weeks, they had to talk about _something_.


End file.
